A Fiery Sunset

by Chris Kennedy

  “You could say that,” Alexis said, then pursed her lips. “The common belief was that hyperspace was a static thing. Call it another dimension with different, but understandable, rules. By traveling in it, you can arrive at another point in exactly 170 hours. There are limitations on distance because of certain other rules.”

  “But by the way you’re saying common belief, I take it there’re things we don’t know?” Frank Earl had a look of doubt mixed with confusion. When a Horseman talked, you listened. However, he’d made his living as a marine in the merc trade, plying the stars since he was a young recruit. His expression held a tinge of a young child about to be told Santa wasn’t real.

  “Yes,” Alexis said, “in a manner of speaking.” The door behind her opened, and she glanced back, nodding to the man who entered. He didn’t appear to be more than 25, though he was Asian and could have been older. He wore a lab coat with a Winged Hussars’ logo on the breast, suggesting he was a civilian employee. He was accompanied by a reptilian elSha and a Jeha that looked like a four-foot-long millipede with its eyes on extendable stalks. Jim hadn’t had much interaction with the Jeha, although they were known throughout the universe as excellent ship builders and engineers.

  “Everyone, this is Doctor Taiki Sato, our resident mad scientist. He’s the lead scientist of a special group of scientists and engineers we affectionately call the ‘Geek Squad.’”

  Jim gave a snort of laughter, and Alexis winked at him. Nigel just looked confused. The name Taiki Sato was immediately familiar to Jim. “You finished the Human biome integration work that allowed pinplants to be commercially available,” he said.

  “Yes, that was me,” the man said with a little bow. Jim nodded; the man was closer to 50 than 25.

  Jim turned his head and tapped his pinplant. “Thanks,” he said. The other man bowed slightly again. “But you just disappeared a decade ago. Sold your biomedical research company to Avander and, poof, nothing.”

  “I had a better offer,” Sato said with a twinkle in his eye. He swept a hand to the elSha. “This is Kleena, who’s in charge of our department.” The elSha nodded his head as he looked around the room.

  “Dr. Sato is the brains behind the operation,” he said, “however, like many geniuses, he often lacks focus. My job is to keep him pointed in a useful direction.”

  “True research should not be fettered by common needs,” Sato countered.

  “Maybe another time?” Alexis said, and Sato gave her a little bow. “A number of months ago, after a series of serious battles, my flagship Pegasus was severely damaged just as we entered hyperspace. She has three reactors and can stay in hyperspace with just one. However, one was completely destroyed in an earlier battle, and another was damaged and needed repairs. We were hit by a particle beam that damaged the last reactor just as we transitioned to hyperspace. The final reactor was going to fail before we could fix any of the others.”

  Jim noted everyone in the room was watching and listened in rapt attention. Frank Earl visibly cringed at this news. Jim was far from an expert in space travel. Despite that, he knew one thing without a doubt; if a ship lost power in hyperspace, it was all over. Nobody knew what happened to a ship in that situation, only that it was never seen again. “What happened?” he asked. Splunk hadn’t moved from watching Alexis the whole time.

  “We lost power and dropped out of hyperspace.” She took a moment to let that sink in to those in attendance. “Much to our surprise, we didn’t die. Obviously, since we’re here now.” There were a few chuckles as she continued. “We found ourselves…elsewhere. Where normal hyperspace is a featureless white nothing, this place was a pure black void. I’ll let Sato explain.”

  The man moved forward and cleared his throat before speaking. “I was aboard Pegasus during this incident and was able to take numerous readings and perform some tests.” A Tri-V came alive in the center of the conference table. It was full of complex calculations. “What I’ve labeled as 2nd Level Hyperspace is a non-Newtonian space with highly unusual characteristics. As you may or may not be aware, quite a few tests have been done in 1st Level Hyperspace over the years since humanity encountered the Galactic Union. In most ways, that level of hyperspace is fairly normal, including the way gravity and power interact.

  “2nd Level Hyperspace doesn’t follow these rules. A ship’s metallic structure creates a normalization field against the differing energy flux we encountered. However, gravity variations are all penetrating.” The Tri-V changed to show Winged Hussars marines jumping across open spaces to come ridiculously to a stop, as if they were experiencing an external force. Jim was surprised to see a Tortantula involved in the experiments, and one of the ship’s marines.

  “Visual characteristics are reduced and, while radiation does provide limited returns, the physics behind it is completely out of whack.” Sato went on for some time, talking about the unusual conditions they’d found. Eventually, he wound down. “In summation, 2nd Level Hyperspace is what we’d expect from a dimensional shift from our own universe.”

  “How’d you get out?” Earl asked after Sato had stopped talking. Now it was the Jeha’s turn.

  “This is Ch’t’kl’tk, my chief engineer on Pegasus,” Alexis explained. “We call him Mr. Long.” Jim grinned again; he liked her sense of humor.

  “With the time provided by being in a stable environment, we were able to fabricate another fusion power plant from spares and parts of the damaged plants.” The alien’s voice was a combination of nearly inaudible hisses and screeching, combined with the clicking the alien made by tapping the floor or its own carapace. Jim’s pinplants easily rendered the sounds into English. “We were short buffers, and the containment vessel was less than ideal; however, we did prevail. The problem we had was F11. Most of our reserves were lost during the explosions. As you know, without the heat and radiation dampening effect of F11, fusion power plants aren’t practical. We needed to replenish our reserves.”

  “That’s where the other ships come in,” Kleena said.

  “I’m sorry,” Alistair Cromwell said. “Did you say other ships?”

  “Yes,” Kleena confirmed. “There are other ships where we found ourselves. Quite a lot of them, actually.”

  “It’s possible that every ship that ever experienced a power failure in 1st Level Hyperspace is in 2nd Level,” Sato interjected.

  “Yes,” Kleena agreed, taking up the lead again. “In fact, based on our examinations, some of the ships were not of any design ever seen before.”

  “How far away were they?” Jim asked. Splunk glanced from him to the elSha as he answered.

  “Distances were hard to measure, for the reasons Sato mentioned, but we estimated from a few kilometers to millions. It’s one of the other principle differences between the levels of hyperspace. We know that there must be ships nearby in the 1st Level when you’re traveling through it, because we often transition into hyperspace only a few hundred meters from another ship. Yet they’re invisible to us. Where we were, you could see the other ships.”

  “You got F11 from one,” Alistair said, not really asking.

  Kleena nodded. “We sent a shuttle over to search the nearby ships. It was a challenging operation, because ships experienced the same drag effect you saw in the earlier videos. It was then we discovered that the drag didn’t induce any inertia. It was possible to slow from a very high rate of speed without the effects of inertia.” More heads shook in amazement.

  “We recovered F11 from one of those ships, a Maki battleship we’d previously engaged in battle,” Alexis explained. Kleena glanced at her with a somewhat surprised expression but didn’t add anything. “After we recovered it, we were able to return to normal space.”

  “That’s amazing,” Walker said, “but how does that help with the Grimm?”

  “It ties in with the five-day trip you learned about,” she said, “but Sato will have to help make sense out of it.”

  “Each level of hyperspace is closely r
elated to the other,” the scientist said, “but separated by a barrier. It’s a little like the surface tension of water. Our hyperspace field generators let us act like small insects, creating a hyperspatial pressure wave that lets us skim along the 2nd Level, taking advantage of that level’s non-Einsteinian nature. The trick the Cartographers manage is, when the stargate uses their hyperspace shunts, they send you into hyperspace at a different relativistic angle.” More calculations appeared on the Tri-V.

  “Very few know about this ‘five-day trip,’ and those that do don’t understand how it works.” He gave a sly grin. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think the Cartographers understand it either.”

  “Why’s that?” Jim asked.

  “Because if they did, they’d offer a zero-day trip.” Now Jim was as confused as most of the others in the room.

  “I don’t understand,” he said.

  Alexis picked up the tale. “When we returned to normal space, back here, it was almost immediately after emerging from 2nd Level hyperspace. By accessing that level, you can get to your destination instantly.”

  “Holy shit,” Frank Earl said. “Holy shit!”

  “Indeed,” Sato said with a laugh.

  “Does the Cartography Guild know about this?” Jim asked.

  “Actually, we don’t think so,” Alexis said. “Analysis of data we have from 100 years of monitoring commerce in the Union argues against it. We’ve seen numerous occasions where rich, powerful, well-connected operators would have benefited greatly from the use of this technology. Especially when we were being pursued. It is a remnant from the era of the Great Galactic war. Possibly the understanding is lost.”

  “It’s more likely the procedure is too risky,” Sato pointed out. Alexis gave a slight nod, acknowledging the possibility.

  “Only ships with hyperspace shunts can return from 2nd Level Hyperspace,” she explained, “making it a one-way trip for most.”

  “Pegasus has hyperspace shunts, then,” Frank Earl said, a wide grin on his face. “That helps explain some of your exploits.” Alexis gave one of her little smiles. “Not many ships that size have them. They’re horribly expensive.”

  “They came as standard equipment with the ship,” Alexis said. Jim recalled the story that the Hussars had found Pegasus as a derelict, and that it was an artifact dating back to the Great Galactic War.

  Jim had to smile, himself. He’d grown up with stories of all the Horsemen. These facts explained much of how the Winged Hussars became the richest, and perhaps the most powerful of their number. A ship capable of incredible deeds, incorporating ancient tech from a bygone era, and possession of the system they were in? “You found New Warsaw from something in the Pegasus,” he said, “didn’t you? Navigational data, or something.”

  “Or something,” she agreed. The smile was gone now; there were some secrets she wasn’t yet willing to share.

  “If you can simply intercept this alien spy by yourself, why are we here?” Nigel demanded. “Way back at the beginning you said the situation had been decided for you.”

  “After speaking with the command staff of the Winged Hussars, we’ve come to the conclusion that attacks like this must not be allowed to stand. We’re in.” Everyone around the table nodded in satisfaction, even Nigel. “While this course of action represents great risk, the risk to humanity is greater. The Four Horsemen must face this, together.”

  * * *

  Alexis looked at them and gauged their responses to her announcement. Most seemed pleased. Jim Cartwright looked relieved. Daniel Walker was expectant. The three smaller unit commanders all looked attentive, if concerned. Nigel Shirazi appeared smug. She’d tried to come off as confident as possible. The truth was she only had a piece of the plan, and a small piece at that.

  “One of our problems in confronting the fleet around Earth is ships. Simply put, I don’t have enough. The Hussars have never had battleships, and your sensor data confirms they do.” Alexis nodded toward Nigel as she said the last part. “You can overcome them with either surprise, or numbers. We won’t have surprise.”

  “They aren’t expecting us to return,” Nigel said.

  “You don’t think so?” Alexis asked. “They’ve tried to wipe us all out, but they couldn’t get their claws into my Hussars after we handed them their asses. Taking Earth was at least partially to try to lure me into a disastrous battle. I can’t pull the kind of maneuvers I did last time, for a lot of reasons. Instead, I plan to use numbers.”

  “You said you don’t have more ships,” Jim said.

  “Not on hand,” she admitted, “but I know where they are.” Using her pinplants, Alexis brought up a series of images. Starship after starship appeared and was moved to the side. Dozens in total. “We spotted these during our time in 2nd Level Hyperspace. We have crew. Far more crew than ships. The Winged Hussars has maintained an academy for over 75 years now. A lot of our trained people stay here; many take up jobs within the system after serving, others rotate on and off our existing ships. In all, we have enough trained or nearly trained crew for four times as many ships as we have.”

  “You’re going to salvage those ships,” Jim Cartwright said incredulously.

  “Yes, I am,” she answered. The room buzzed again. “But the Earth campaign will take more than ships. We’ll need forces and some massive firepower.”

  “I can give you the firepower,” Jim said. Alexis nodded inwardly. She’d been counting on him to weigh in. “The Raknar can shift the tide in a planetary battle.”

  “Those ancient rust buckets?” Nigel scoffed. “What good are they?”

  “More good than you…” Everyone turned to the light, almost musical voice. Jim Cartwright’s little alien companion had her goggles hanging around her neck and was staring daggers at Nigel Shirazi. It would seem the Asbaran Solutions commander had hit a nerve with the alien. Alexis was more than a little surprised; she hadn’t known the creature could speak, let alone perfect English. Nigel looked at the alien, and his jaw fell open.

  “Splunk, be nice,” Jim admonished her.

  “Fuck him…” she replied. Nigel’s gawk turned to a splutter, and his face turned red. Splunk stuck her tongue out, and he growled.

  “What Splunk is trying to say is, don’t underestimate what Raknar can do,” Jim said.

  “One giant robot toy,” Nigel snorted.

  “Commander Cromwell,” Jim addressed her, “may I use the Tri-V?”

  “Certainly,” she said, and sent him the display’s address via her pinplants. A second later, the image of the ships was replaced with an ancient horror. A lot of pictures and a few clips of Canavar in action existed, but none of those compared to the truly horrendous images of a live one in glorious full ultra-definition 3D, as it was projected from the memory files in Jim’s brain.

  It was obvious to Alexis he’d spliced together his own recorded memories along with external views from other combatants as he fought several of the alien behemoths. The external images of the Raknar spinning and firing, then using what looked like a battleship gun as a golf club to pulverize the titanic monster were incredible. If this was a movie, it would be a blockbuster, Alexis thought. But no one would believe it.

  The replay came to an end as the last Canavar died in a spray of chitin and gore. Jim turned to Nigel, who was staring at the fading image, his eyes wide. “Tell me again how useless a Raknar is?” Splunk crossed her arms and smirked at Nigel. Yes, the little alien actually appeared to be smirking. Her long ears were up, and she looked ready for anything. “That aside, you do have a point, though,” Jim conceded. “We only have one operational, and another partly.”

  “Even two of those isn’t enough,” Alexis said. Jim grinned. The Tri-V came alive again. This time it was the inside of a long warehouse. The image moved quickly, as if whoever took it was racing along at high speed. It slowed, the frame rate now visible. The warehouse was full of row after row of Raknar. “Where’s that?” Alexis asked.

  “The pl
anet is known as Badlands. It’s a modestly successful mining world, but it’s only successful because of slave labor being provided by the Aku. At least until recently, that is. I suspect the Peacemakers have put an end to that by now.” Jim showed his teeth in a savage grin. Alexis suspected he’d had something to do with that. “I’ve been all over the galaxy looking for intact Raknar. You find them here and there, though most have been ripped to pieces, gutted for parts, or have decayed into uselessness. Everywhere except here. I never found out why they have a huge stockpile of them on Badlands.”

  “Buy some from them, then,” Nigel said, “the robots are still largely considered a curiosity. I understand most can be bought for a few hundred thousand credits. If they can do what you showed, they’d be a great investment.”

  “Normally that would be the case,” Jim agreed, “except in this case the owners are rather peeved with me and found out I wanted them, so they aren’t willing to let them go to anyone. Believe me, I tried.”

  “Who are the owners?” Alexis asked.

  “The KzSha,” Jim said. Everyone exchanged concerned looks. One of the most brutal merc races in the galaxy, the KzSha were known for not giving a damn about most rules on a good day, or any rules on days they could get away with it. The fact that Jim had caught them enslaving another race didn’t surprise Alexis one bit. “But I think we can pull off a smash-and-grab.”

  “Now you’re talking,” Nigel agreed, then made a face. “I hate wasps.”

  “The problem is the Raknar themselves. They appear perfect, except for one thing.” The Tri-V stopped on one particularly good image of a giant robot, then a computer enhancement appeared of its torso. This one had four arms. From what Alexis had seen, that wasn’t unusual. The Dusman had made the war machines in a variety of sizes and configurations for different missions. However, the chest on this one was wide open, and the computer enhancement highlighted an empty spot.

  “They took the reactor?” Alexis asked.